Journalism Research and Random Meanderings

Tuesday, November 07, 2006

InfoWorld Portrays Wikipedia as Intentional Virus Distributor 

If articles are soapboxes then headlines are the guy standing on top of them and yelling to the world. I'd bet headline scanning forms more of our world view than we might like to admit.

I had already read the Wikipedia malware story when I came across the careless headline wording in this November 6, 2006 08:31 AM posting by Caroline Craig which seems to imply that Wikipedia intentionally spread malware.

Wikipedia spreads malicious code

"The German version of online encyclopedia Wikipedia has been found to contain links to a supposed fix for a version of the MS Blaster worm. The fix was actually a piece of malicious code, says security vendor Sophos.

According to a report on cNet, the Wikipedia entry for WS32.Blaster was altered to contain false information and the link. Editors of Wikipedia.de deleted the links once they were discovered, however hackers were still able to send links to the archived entry through a mass-mailed e-mail.

Sophos reported on Friday that because the e-mails linked to a legitimate Web site, they were able to bypass some antispam solutions.

Posted by Caroline Craig on November 6, 2006 08:31 AM"

I doubt Infoworld meant to cast aspersions on Wikipedia but there it is - a poor choice of words puts an editorial slant on an article that's no more than a rehashing of news posted elsewhere.

Want to bet Infoworld and Caroline Craig are capable of better? I would.

--PB--